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Artist Carrying A Torch For Environment

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By GEOFF FOX

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 9, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - Bradley Arthur was sweaty enough to enter a wet T-shirt contest. That happens when you spend hours under the sun forging metal with power tools.

The Land O' Lakes sculptor, known for making works out of "found objects" — some might say "junk" — was removing rust from a large, abstract piece outside his Land O' Lakes studio.

Wielding a 25-year-old angle grinder, he eliminated streaks of rust from an otherwise polished portion of "Family Ladder," a towering work that gleamed in the Florida heat.

The streaks, he said, represent tears shed over environmental issues.

"I've always been concerned about the environment," said Arthur, 54. "The climate change is evidence that it's significant to not just talk about using our materials, but reusing and transforming some forms of waste into art. I've been doing that 35 years, and it's satisfying to see it entering the mainstream."

In 2001, he was chosen by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to build a pair of 6-ton, roughly 10-foot-high star sculptures, placed at the sheriff's offices in Ybor City and Citrus Park. The works were made from melted guns collected in Hillsborough's Cease Fire program.

"Every little thing or individual or aspect of the environment, when looked at alone, may not appear to have any significant meaning in relationship to the whole," Arthur said in a 2003 interview. "But when it's combined — like community, people working together, like relationships — it really makes something special.

"There's a star and a circle; those are like primal forms that relate to the beginning of time."

Across the Tampa Bay area, his work — including his WORDZWORKX sculpture series — has been shown at the Brad Cooper Gallery and John F. Germany Public Library in Tampa and St. Petersburg's Salt Creek Galleries, as well as at Democratic Party fundraisers. He also has spoken about artists' rights on WMNF, 88.5 FM.

His "ChairMuse" sculpture has been in front of New City Hall Plaza in downtown Tampa since 1982; another, "Generations," was bought by the Miami Jewish Home & Hospital for the Aged. Both are listed in the Smithsonian Institution's Inventory of American Painting and Sculpture.

A Tampa native, Arthur was raised in Miami and graduated from the University of South Florida in 1975. He later studied under master stone carvers, marble workers and welders at universities and studios in France, Italy and New York. For 17 years, he owned a studio in New York City.

Resting in the shade of a crape myrtle, he said he is in negotiations with a children's hospital in New York that's interested in "Family Ladder" or a piece like it for its courtyard.

He lives in Land O' Lakes with Jane, his wife, and college-age offspring, Ethan and Emily, because he loves it there.

Emblazoned across the front of a fresh shirt was: "CO2OS," a call to humans to save the planet.

"The young people need to step up to the plate now," he said. "The ball's in their court to develop the courage and awareness to treat human beings and the environment as precious."

In Bradley Arthur's world, inspiration is no farther away than a hubcap on the side of the road; dialogue is as important as air, and the glass isn't half-full — it's overflowing.

A dented muffler and blowtorch to him is like a guitar and harmonica to Bob Dylan.

Sometimes, though, you wonder whether he has ever driven during rush hour.

"There's a lot of beauty, harmony and unity in the world," he says. "Most people are considerate and fair."

Information about his work can be found at www.co2sos.com, www.st2p.com and www
.bradarthur.com.

Keyword: Everyday People, to watch an interview with Bradley Arthur and him working on a new piece

"There's a lot of

beauty, harmony and unity

in the world."

BRADLEY ARTHUR

Sculptor

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or gfox@tampatrib

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